Lean On Me: José James Celebrates Bill Withers

Arts Commons, Jack Singer Concert HallThursday, November 15, 2018

Doors open at at 6:30pm Concert at 7:30pmIncludes an intermissionPre-show artist: Rondel Roberts*Please be on time. For the respect of the artists and other patrons, latecomers will only be seated at an appropriate break in the performance.

Celebrating the eightieth birth year of the legendary R&B singer songwriter, Blue Note recording artist José James presents "Lean On Me: José James celebrates Bill Withers." Vetted personally by Mr. Withers himself, the show is an exploration of the deep musical catalogue that touched millions of hearts and united communities worldwide. Featuring Withers' top ten hits as well as his soul ballads and rare grooves, James brings both a deep musical appreciation and a contemporary approach to songs such as "Ain't No Sunshine," "Hope She'll Be Happier," and "Just the Two of Us." Fittingly, James has assembled a truly all-star cast of musicians: Nate Smith on drums, Ben Williams on bass, Takeshi Ohbayashi on keys and Brad Allen Williams on guitar.

“A romantic baritone with a deep-funk band, stretching out songs, evoking both the ’70s of Roberta Flack and Gil Scott-Heron and the ’90s and oughts of J Dilla.”

Single tickets and new TD Jazz subscriptions are now on sale! Subscribe online or call our box office at 403-294-9494 for more information.

The Jack Singer Concert Hall in Arts Commons is described as one of the most beautiful and acoustically acclaimed venues in North America. Home of Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, BD&P World Music, and TD Jazz, audiences are treated to some of the world's finest musical events. The hall also welcomes a spectrum of events each season from TED talks and National Geographic speakers, to wedding dinners on the stage and rock stars on tour.

Named after Mr. Jack Singer ($1.5M contribution from his sons, Alan and Stephen Singer), the concert hall is also the home of the Carthy Organ donated by the Carthy Foundation in the amount of $750,000 in memory of Mrs. Margaret Mannix. Suspended high above the stage is a laminated, 185,000-pound (90-ton) spruce-wood acoustical canopy that can be raised or lowered to tune the hall according to the specific needs of each performer.

Over its 32 year life, Jack Singer Concert Hall has undergone many upgrades to ensure that it remains a state-of-the-art performance hall, including a new million dollar sound system with state-of-the-art hearing assistance in 2004, a complete replacement of all its analog sound boards in 2014, and the future replacement of all of its seats to be completed by fall 2017.

Arts Commons is not responsible for tickets purchased through any secondary market sales channel. As we are unable to verify such purchases, we are unable to reissue tickets to anyone other than the credit card holder who made the original purchase through Arts Commons’ sales channels.

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